Hello everyone,This was just posted on the Guild Wars 2 Facebook page:

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I am very disappointed that the first intensive tech-talk about Guild Wars 2 I've seen advertised is coupled with a $1000 conference registration fee.

ArenaNet's press releases throughout the life-span of Guild Wars 2 have conveyed great importance on innovation, community, and (dare I say) fairness. The low system requirements, absence of subscription fees, and multiplexed currency exchange show that there was a design focus on creating an open environment able to accommodate all types of players. Even the currently implemented systems for shared gathering/experience/loot, as well as the abstracted economy on trading posts, reveal an emphasis on keeping Guild Wars 2 a COOPERATIVE, SHARED, and REVOLUTIONARY experience for all of its players.

In my mind, the lack of tech-talks is an exact contradiction to all of the principles that this project - and this company - have been advertising to the world. It is my opinion that the root cause of the poor state of the gaming ecosystem, and the reason why game studios have not been forced to innovate, is the high cost of learning to develop GOOD gaming solutions. Why should a creative mind have to pay $1000 for some tips/insight into innovative game development?

As a long-time supporter of ArenaNet (started playing GW 7 years ago, when I was 12 years old), as an upcoming developer/computer scientist, as a game enthusiast, and most importantly...as a member of the community...I urge you to start making tech-talks more available. Keep in mind, I'm not asking you to show the world your secret-sauce; I am asking you not to perpetuate the greedy/slow-moving/thoughtless nature that seems to plague the large game production companies. (You know...that stuff that the GW2 Manifesto claimed to aspire to fix)

Thank you for all of your effort so far. Your games have been fun, thought provoking, and inspirational to me.

Please, continue to innovate and grow. Please, please, please start contributing to the community's education in an accessible/open way. You may find that it will benefit your company in the long run.

I wanted to re-post this here to spark some discussion with the GW2 community.
Should companies that claim to have such evangelical intentions (like Google, Twitter, Facebook, and recently Arenanet) be expected to educate the community about their technology or does their responsibility stop at creating and maintaining their product?